By Regina Benneh,
Fiapre, (Bono), May 30, GNA – A Public Health Nurse has urged families to provide their girls with menstrual hygiene products.
Madam Lucy Sanyenu, a nurse at the Sunyani West Municipal Directorate of Health, also urged parents to draw closer to their girls, know their challenges and provide them with basic reproductive health needs.
She was speaking at a forum held at Fiapre in the Sunyani West Municipality to mark the 2025 celebration of the Menstrual Hygiene Day, jointly organised by the Action Aid Ghana (AAG) and the Sunyani branch of the Young Urban Women’s Movement (YUWM).
Attended by school girls and stakeholders, the forum sought to intensify awareness creation on menstrual hygiene as well as to discuss critical issues on Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) provision in basic schools.
Madam Sanyenu expressed concern that because some families failed to provide their girls with menstrual hygiene products, some men capitalise on that and exploit girls sexually in the pretext of supporting them with those products.
She also advised women and girls to maintain good menstrual hygiene by changing their pads and bathing regularly.
Madam Sanyenu said it was essential for girls to understand menstrual hygiene and to manage themselves when they menstruate to protect them against infections.
“That will also empower them to feel confident and comfortable during such periods,” she stated and urged girls to balance their diets and avoid unhealthy lifestyle, asking them to drink more water, especially during menstruation.
Madam Sanyenu called for collective efforts in promoting menstrual health and hygiene, saying that would create a healthier environment for girls, and thereby make them self-confident.
Mr Yaw Osei Boateng, the Bono Regional Programme Officer of the AAG called for intensify education on menstrual health to break some societal myths and misconception about menstruation, urging schools to also provide bins for menstrual waste.
He noted that menstruation was a major factor contributing to girls’ absenteeism in schools and stressed the commitment of the AAG to remain at the forefront of scaling up menstrual health education and providing WASH facilities in schools.
Mr Boateng said AAG had built a number of mechanised boreholes, children friendly Kindergarten schools and toilet facilities in some communities in the Tain and Asutifi districts and urged the government to prioritise menstrual hygiene among girls.
GNA
Edited by Dennis Peprah/Linda Asante Agyei